Presidential Birthday Fundraisers? You Don’t Say!
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Jim Lindgren writing at The Volokh Conspiracy is very very concerned that a political party would tie in the birthday of a president with a campaign fundraiser.
I find it hard to say precisely why I find this email a bit creepy. At one level this seems innocuous enough–and it is definitely not a big thing.
At another level, asking millions of Americans to sign a birthday card for the President suggests a tone-deafness about the cult of personality. If we lived in a dictatorship, getting millions of subjects to celebrate the Dear Leader’s birthday would be routine, but in a free republic this appeal to get millions of citizens to celebrate a current president’s birthday strikes a discordant note to my ear.
No, I am not saying we are in a dictatorship; I am saying that because we are not, we should not be emulating the trappings characteristic of that fundamentally different sort of regime. Nor do I think this is particularly ominous, just a very small step in the wrong direction.
Surely this has never been done before. It’s all about some sort of bizarre love of Barack Obama. A cult of personal– oh wait.
There’s a reason I compulsively keep e-mails I get. One is, I’m just a packrat. But the other reason is I know b.s. like this pops up.
From an e-mail sent 6/17/2008 by the RNC. The images are broken, but the text remains:
Dear Fred,
You should have recently received a letter from me along with a birthday card asking you to help the Republican National Committee celebrate President Bush’s 62nd birthday on July 6.
I know George will appreciate receiving warm wishes from loyal supporters on his special day. If you have not yet had a chance to sign and return your card to the RNC, please take a moment to add your name to the RNC’s e-card.
And if you can, please consider commemorating President Bush’s 62nd birthday with a gift our entire Party can share. Your secure online gift of $62 or whatever you can afford — $25, $75, $100, $500 or even $1,000 — will go a long way toward helping the RNC promote our Party’s responsible agenda and electing a Republican president and Congress in November.
I hope you will add your name to the RNC’s Birthday e-card to George today. And thank you for your continued support of our President and our Party.
Cordially,
Laura Bush
P.S. In order for your name to be included on the RNC’s birthday e-card to President Bush, you must reply to this e-mail by July 2. Please click here to sign the President’s birthday card and to make a secure online gift to help lead our Party to victory this fall. Thank you.
And what does that e-mail link to?
As usual, I am shocked, shocked at the b.s. hypocrisy and misleading of the American right.
39 Responses to “Presidential Birthday Fundraisers? You Don’t Say!”
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hope you sent him an email w/ RNC email attached, lol.
Is there nothing wingnuts won’t whine and bitch about?
I guess not.
Wingnuts are evil, stupid, treasonous liars. Nothing–nothing–they do comes from anything other than their own viciousness. Scum, every single cowardly one of them.
Having a memory is socialist
To pre-empt the trolls: Is the basic point of OW’s post correct? Is what’s described hypocritical? Yes or no? Answer this first, please; then you can proceed with the usual look-over-there-isms
This is especially “tone-deaf” and offensive because, as we all know, Obama wasn’t even born here!
Speaking in terms of tone-deafness and possibly of lies:
1) Did federal election law change since 2008 so that you no longer have to report your employer and occupation? Because Michelle Obama didn’t ask that of me.
2) The Obama card asked me to sign it and offered a personal message option. After I’d done so, then it asked me if I wanted to donate money. (At this time, I did not, and clicked away.)
The Bush card looks like an order form up-front. The Obama card looked like a card. Bad aesthetics, GOP.
To pre-empt the trolls: Is the basic point of OW’s post correct? Is what’s described hypocritical? Yes or no? Answer this first, please; then you can proceed with the usual look-over-there-isms.
You guys spent the better part of eight full years calling George Bush tone-deaf and out of touch, so no, bikelib, this isn’t hypocritical. It’s surprising, surprising in a figure of speech kind of way since nothing is surprising with you guys any more, that Oliver would justify this birthday card by saying it’s ok since Bush did it too. That’s a better example of being hypocritical, bikelib….saving an email to your hard drive because the idea behind it turns your stomach like the spin cycle of a washing machine, then bringing it out to defend the guy you’re in love with wwh did the same thing.
that Oliver would justify this birthday card by saying it’s ok since Bush did it too.
Oliver is not “justifying the birthday card.” He’s rebutting the idea that the birthday card fundraiser is a sign of Obama’s cult of personality blah blah dictator complex.
Which you can then easily counter by admitting that Bush had the exact same complex, seeing as how he did the exact same thing.
But then you’d have to answer to why you and the rest of the right wing didn’t seem to care for eight years, if Bush did in fact have the same personality flaws that Lindgren is ascribing to Obama.
“This has been a big – and hectic – year for him.”
Absolutely! Between all the golf, concerts, basketball celebrations, and trips to Maine, it’s enough to wear a guy plumb out!! Hopefully, he’ll enjoy plenty of time on his big day to kick back, celebrate, and relax.
Meanwhile, the millions of people who no longer have a job thanks to this administration are waiting until November to send THEIR birthday wishes…
You guys spent the better part of eight full years calling George Bush tone-deaf and out of touch, so no, bikelib, this isn’t hypocritical.
It would be surprising, surprising in a figure of speech kind of way since nothing is surprising with you any more, Dennis, if one day you actually looked up the definition of hypocrisy.
Based on the sentence above and the rest of your post, it’s clear you have no idea what the word actually means.
Absolutely! Between all the golf, concerts, basketball celebrations, and trips to Maine, it’s enough to wear a guy plumb out!!
Yes, it’s too bad he didn’t have a ranch to go to and play pretend cowboy like GWB.
Are you disappointed that the BP well got capped despite Obama not camping out on the beach 100 days ago to make sure that the clean-up and well closing got done properly?
reading the comments on a Kerr thread at Volokh, it turns out that the GOP did the same thing for Bush on his 61st birthday as well (except for the $1 difference) and the only thing that the Dems of the time complained about was soliciting donations, which Obama didn’t do.
Meanwhile, the millions of people who no longer have a job thanks to this administration
Boy, it sure sucked when those millions of people lost their jobs all at once in January 2009 while having been gainfully employed for the two years prior.
To sum up, it goes like this:
right-wing nut says “They’re asking people to sign a birthday card for Obama, it is uniquely disturbing and wrong. Cult!”
Oliver says “Bush did the same thing, only they used it for fundraising”
Dennis (showing his usual keen ability to answer a question nobody asked) says “See! Obama is as bad as Bush!”
SaveFerris, apparently trying to destroy our hypocrisy-meter by burying the needle, complains that Obama takes too much vacation (or something).
Good work, nutters!
DJIA 10500, oil spill dissipating, Obama B-Day card… Satan laughing spreads his wings!
DJIA 10500, oil spill dissipating, Obama B-Day card… Satan laughing spreads his wings!
It’s all coming up roses, now, timmy.
Good times.
Dennis (showing his usual keen ability to answer a question nobody asked) says “See! Obama is as bad as Bush!”
No, Crusty, Oliver is saying Obama is only as bad as Bush, who he on many occasions has said was dictatorial, out of touch, and enjoyed cult-like status.
He’s also equating one man’s opinion with the American right, something he does frequently, calling it hypocrisy that the American right did not complain about Laura Bush’s email birthday card. Not that this author didn’t complain, which by all appearances looks like he didn’t even know about Laura’s email, but that the American right didn’t complain.
Or not that the American Left didn’t complain or were creeped out about Bush’s card (they did and they were), and are saying nothing about Michele Obama’s email birthday announcement, but just that it’s the American right that is hypocritical and misleading. And you fail to see the irony here, Crusty.
Boy, it sure sucked when those millions of people lost their jobs all at once in January 2009 while having been gainfully employed for the two years prior.
Did Obama come in to office promising 9-10% unemployment for the next two years, that that was the best he was going to be able to do given where things were in January 2009, SpiderJ?
No, you say? He said just the opposite? That with the ginoromous stimulus package he could keep the level from going above 8% if only we passed it? And now a year and a half later it’s still Bush’s fault, but the buck stops with him, or something?
All-righty, then.
This is only hypocritical if Jim Lindgren, specifically, lauded the Bush fundraiser. If so, show evidence of that, or don’t make such fatuous accusations. As I’ve futility pointed out many times in the past, people are individuals, not borg.
That is, unless Oliver is ok being held accountable for everything anyone on “the left,” has ever said or done.
I don’t really have an opinion one way or another on these types of fundraisers, I just think its a load of horse manure to claim it as an example of Obama’s so called cult of personality when it’s pretty standard issue. I had far more problems with Bush’s policies that killed thousands of Americans than him trading on his birthday to raise money for the RNC.
Indifference is a totally rational viewpoint to have on these mailings. But the right insists on turning everything about the Obama into an end-of-days, supervillianish, NWO-illuminati conspiracy.
Did Obama come in to office promising 9-10% unemployment for the next two years, that that was the best he was going to be able to do given where things were in January 2009, SpiderJ?
I don’t recall anyone promising anything except the pony I got for voting for Obama that’s in my back yard.
Dennis, you do realize that Oliver’s post was a critique of Lindgren, don’t you? If you do, then you’re just engaging in the usual Republican spinning bullshit. If not, get an adult to explain it to you.
Read his last sentence and get back to me, calling all toasters.
Then if you need an adult to explain it to you, let me know.
I don’t recall anyone promising anything
(source)
SaveFarris, we know now that Obama compromised his program to be ‘bipartisan’ with the Republicans after some of the comments you quote, so what he proposed, Congress disposed of, and your point is?
How are his ‘promises’ related to the topic of Olivers’ post in the first place?
………….and that’s another game of “Look Over There!”, lost by the smartest of the “Loveable Losers”, who you all know as Dennis, DaveinSoCal, MrGreyGhost, and that paragon of propriety and politeness, Frank DiSalle.
Thanks, GOP. I wasn’t going to sign the card, but your complaints inspired me to do so. And I donated.
You know what would be really creepy and depraved? If a celebration of the President’s birthday were to turn into a nationwide organization that existed and worked its wickedness long after the President’s death, especially if it involved using dimes, and the President’s portrait eventually wound up ON the dime.
Now that would be a vile and unAmerican cult of personality.
No wonder Republicans are trying to correct the evils of the Liberal Cult of Personality by replacing the divisive partisan image of FDR with the universal and unifying image of Ronald Reagan.
I think it’s disgraceful that our Soshulist-in-Chief would use a Kenyan/Indonesian national holiday to raise funds for his ongoing subjugation of America!!!!1
No, Crusty, Oliver is saying Obama is only as bad as Bush, who he on many occasions has said was dictatorial, out of touch, and enjoyed cult-like status.
Oliver is pointing out the hypocrisy of Jim Lindgren criticizing the Obama birthday card, something Lindgren obviously never had a problem with when it was done for Bush multiple times. Everything you’ve written is a variation on your personal delusions and “LOOK OVER THERE!!!”
But if that’s your answer, I say, weak Tea, Dennis, weak tea. Still, it does modify the summary:
right-wing nut says “They’re asking people to sign a birthday card for Obama, it is uniquely disturbing and wrong. Cult!”
Oliver says “Bush did the same thing, only they used it for fundraising”
Dennis (showing his usual keen ability to answer a question nobody asked) says “See! Obama is as bad as Bush!”
Dennis (muddying the water further) says “If Obama did it he’s as bad as Bush so the only hypocrisy is Oliver’s for not noting that Obama is as bad as Bush because Oliver clearly objected to the Bush birthday card, even though he didn’t, but he would have if he’d known and even if he didn’t some other lefty did (though I have no evidence of that, but if I state things I imagine as if they are fact then I look smart). Also, did I mention that Obama is as bad as Bush (who I always thought was a great president at the time but I’ll use it to beat teh evil liberals on teh internets HA HA!)”
I don’t think “obviously” means what you think it means. What evidence do you have to make that accusation? Again, if you have a quote from Lindgren supporting the Bush fundraiser, cough it up. Otherwise, stop saying foolish things.
Dennis– wow, even for a child you are very, very stupid. Remedial 7th grade English, STAT!
What evidence do you have to make that accusation? Again, if you have a quote from Lindgren supporting the Bush fundraiser, cough it up.
We know that he criticized the Obama birthday card; Oliver linked to it. If he is consistent, he also criticized the Bush card. Please show us where he did, or admit that he didn’t criticize the similar effort for Bush that included a plea for contributions of the sort that DIDN’T appear in the Obama card.
I can’t show you that he didn’t criticize the Bush card, because that would be proving a negative. You can only show that he DID, unless he and you are hypocrites.
But I repeat myself.
Again, if you have a quote from Lindgren supporting the Bush fundraiser, cough it up. Otherwise, stop saying foolish things.
I would need that if Lindgren didn’t claim this was uniquely troubling:
So either Lindgren is a complete hypocrite, or he’s horribly ill-informed. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt on that, but perhaps you are correct and he’s truly a total moron..
Dennis the Cowardly Bitch is in yet another tizzy. Oh dear.
Are the trolls here really that obtuse? This dip-shit Dennis and the Savemysorryass guy really so stupid that they don’t understand the hypocrisy? This SoftFerrit thinks Obama isn’t working hard enough, after Dubya’s record-breaking vacation times?
I’m not a Christian but the New Testament has a good illustration of what a hypocrite is: someone who points out a speck in another’s eye, while his own contains a log. Is this too subtle for a wing-nut?
And to pile your hypocrisy on top of the lies (Obama doesn’t work hard enuff! – according to whom?) makes you dishonest hypocrites. Stupid, also too.
Here, I’ll spell it out for these idiot trolls: Oliver didn’t criticize the Bush BD card thing – ever. He found that Lindgren’s lack of any comment about the Bush BD card thing, but a subsequent hand-wringing about the state of the a “free republic” (my, what large stakes have been attached to this!) to be suspect morally – probably hypocritical, assuming Lindgren knew about the Bush one. (I’m guessing he did – but how can one know for sure? – because he found out about Obama’s. Possibly, though, he only knows about Obama’s BD card appeal because a vigilant RW Obama hater sent it to him.)
Oliver, as far as I can tell, DIDN’T comment about the Bush BD appeal, and if he had, it wouldn’t have risen to the level of endangering a “free republic”. I’m thinking he didn’t comment about Bush’s, because the trolls would have dug it up. Does that start to sink in, trolls? Or are you guys so dense, not even the stupid can escape your cranial singularities?
I notice, too, that the trolls are incurably tribalistic. If you criticize a “conservative”, they think that we mean it to apply to “the right” in an undifferentiated, tribal way. It is the source of their projection. In the tribal mindset, you project your vices, foibles, flaws and character defects onto the other “tribe” in order to try to purge yourself of those vices, etc.
Thus, ButtHurtington thinks he’s got the “touche” on OW, by thinking 1) Lindgren wasn’t hypocritical unless he praised the Bush BD card. No, BH, if he KNEW about it and thought it was fine, but now gets all “the Republic is doomed” about Obama’s, THAT’S hypocritical. Is that so hard to grasp? Oh, you need it on videotape, don’t you, you sad asshole.